6mm WW2 Soviet infantry painting guide - Keeping it simple

 Unhappy with my previous platoon of Soviet infantry I wanted to go greener and brighter. Again, I wanted them to better reflect how they look in Sudden Strike. I wanted a uniform green colour that stands out a little more from the darkness of the table. Here is how I did it.

These are the vaguely recent (as of 2025) Heroics and Ros Soviet infantry in SUMMER UNIFORM.

I painted the figures on strips, which was not a good move, it made basing them harder. On some of the stands you can see shiny copper coin glow through. Next time I paint any I will base them and prime them first. Then paint the base sand yellow - with no coin showing through. I will then follow these steps:

Step 2: Flesh - I was not careful at all.

Step 3: Uniform - I used a colour called Russian Uniform from Vallejo.

Step 4: Weapons and boots black. No wooden stocks at this size. If any paint from boots goes on the base then sobeit.

Step 5: Washed the miniatures with Citadel: Agrax Earthshade. Did not bother washing the base.

Step 6: Painted their helmets Vallejo Russian Green.

Step 7: Painted bayonets with Citadel: Runefang Steel.

Step 8: Flocked the bases. Covered entirely with flock. Painted the rim of bases Vallejo German Grey.

Step 9: Seal miniatures with a matt spray. 

Two different types of light. I really like how these Soviets have turned out. So much better than my first batch - they were too dark. These guys were so simple to paint. The shiny bayonets really help them pop off of the table. 

6mm Wehrmacht painting guide - Keeping it simple.

I wanted to post a guide for how I have started painting my 6mm Wehrmacht figures. I basically wanted to speed the process up and not ruin my eyes for something that looks just like a vaguely coloured blob on the table. 

I have previously discussed how Sudden Strike, an old computer game (that I loved), had each nation be a vaguely different, semi historically accurate colour scheme. This felt like something I might want to replicate in 6mm for ease. However, there was something about painting Tiger 2s and Jagdpanthers grey that didn't sit right with me. As such the vehicles will look pretty late war accurate and the infantry just need to be vaguely Feldgrau-looking.

These are the vaguely recent (as of 2025) Heroics and Ros: German WW2 infantry LATE WAR. 

Here is how I did it.

Step 1: basing and priming. I base my figures on stands of 1, 2, or 3 figures. My standard is a 1p coin. Gun teams are as many figures as the gun requires. I then prime the stands white - this brightness helps with other colours. I then paint the coin with a sand coloured craft paint. I apply no texture whatsoever. (One step simplified). The paint going onto white primer helps it stick. With my Soviets I painted the figures on the strip and attached them later to bases - which has caused problems.

Step 2: I then paint flesh - I am messy with this.

Step 3: I paint their uniform - Vallejo Feldgrau. I get my brush a tiny bit wet to help the paint spread a little, and keeps it lighter. Some of the figures have had their faces painted over mostly, and I do not care. They are always facing away from me anyway. 

Step 4: Guns and boots are painted black. Not wooden stocks, no gunmetal colour. Just black. Paint from the boots ends up on the base - this does not matter.

Step 4: I paint their gear with Vallejo Desert Sand - backpack, canteen. I do not care that this may not be accurate, I just want the gear to stand out a little.

Step 5: I wash the miniature with Citadel: Agrax Earthshade. 

Steps 2-5 are all done in one session.

Step 6: I paint the helmets Vallejo German Grey, and if they are wearing a cap, I paint that Feldgrau. That helps the figure pop a little and gives some colour. 

Step 7: I paint the coin rim a dark colour - Vallejo German Grey normally but black will do.

Step 8: Cover the entire base with a light green flock.

Steps 6-8 are one session

Step 8: Seal the entire thing with a matt spray. This is done when the weather is good enough to let them sit outside so the smell doesn't come in the house.

Closer than I will ever look at them. They are far from perfect but get the job done. 

Compare the bases of the vehicles - the infantry are much lighter.

This picture best represents the light I see them in and the distance as I am usually sat at a table. They look perfectly acceptable. 

Highlighting their gear - all sand coloured but still fine.

Also similar light to how I see them just closer. 

In all I find this method to be effective. I can tell who they are from a distance and they paint up pretty quickly. When I show you my US and Soviet infantry you might see some scratches as I painted them on strips first. This sped up their painting, but basing them up was a PITA. This German method is a winner - handling the bases is kind of annoying, but if I were really serious about it I would save some bottle caps and blutac them onto those. 

Heroics and Ros Wehrmacht and terrain

 I have made some more progress over the Half Term break. 

My son made these industrial terrain features by just glueing a bunch of junk from my junk boxes onto some MDF squares. The MDF squares I bought at 2012 Gencon thinking they would be perfect for basing 20mm miniatures on for Crossfire (a ruleset I have yet to play). I based three stands of infantry and then removed them. Since then I have used these squares for gun teams and 6mm terrain bases. 

The ruin is leftover parts from some MDF 6mm Normandy buildings that I bought in 2016 when making the jump over to 6mm. The rubble are various beads and flock from cheap Chinese trees. It looks okay. The other building is a repaint and redecoration of something I built in 2016. It is made from baby food squeezy pouches - the lid part. I wanted to see what it looked like not for desert terrain. 

Here we have the Heroics and Ros late war Germans. There are enough here for 6 infantry squads. Each platoon in Battlegroup contains 3 squads and 3 MG teams. I have enough MG teams for two platoons with more on order. I would like to field an entire company to be honest. I painted these up in a couple of sessions and am working on making my system more efficient. Tutorial to follow.

Heroics and Ros 6mm progress.

 Hi all,

Having not done much in a while I had the opportunity to sit down for two evenings and make progress. My wife was out in London for the day on Saturday, so after a busy day tiring the kids out and having a great time with them and some friends, I sat myself down Saturday evening and started trying to smash out some infantry. 

I painted the green onto quite a lot of US infantry (helmets) and then their gear I painted a lighter green, then washed them. Unfortunately I squeezed too much green paint out so found a bunch of other things to paint. 

I then cut the US infantry off their strips and attached them to bases - this damaged the paint on some of them which has helped me decide how best to paint up my figures now. 

On Sunday night I painted the bases (bare coin) with my sand colour and then covered with flock. I like the basing system I now have, but an improvement will be made by doing the following:

1. Glue unpainted miniatures to bases.

2. Prime the miniature stands white.

3. Paint the bases sand.

4. Paint the miniatures - I think this will be slightly slower as they won't be on strips, but I won't damage the paint removing from strips to put on bases. 

5. Flock bases.

6. Brush the loose flock off of the miniatures.

7. Seal with a spray.

Here are my almost finished miniatures:

I now have a second platoon of Soviets, maybe even a third. You can see some individually based figures - I had originally avoided doing this because most squads don't survive doing down to one man, but I thought I would just in case. And who knows...maybe they will see service in Five Parsecs from Home.

This equals 6 and a bit squads of US infantry. I just need more BAR teams to allow me to field more platoons. I will likely be buying a few strips of BAR teams in my next order - along with some more heavy brits and some Soviet LMG gunners. 

A couple of PIAT teams, a sniper team and some other infantry. I have a couple more stands to make. I want to be able to field 2 platoons but can't quite do that yet.